Vicente Del Bosque, Spain's manager, made his final experiments, 99 days before the start of the World Cup during a match that finished 1-0 for the defending World Champions against Cesare Prandelli's Italy. Here are three conclusions after the end of the match at Estadio Vicente Calderon:

1. On Marca, Miguel
Angel Lara, author of the book “Los Secretos de La Roja,” wrote an article
detailing what it meant for the Spanish national team to have a striker such as
Diego Costa. One of his beaming points
on his piece was that during the two days Costa spent with his new national team
teammates, the main conclusion amongst the team was that Costa, “es una
bestia,” Costa is a beast.

Against Italy,
Diego Costa could not get his long-awaited goal. He was timid at certain points
of the match, and why wouldn't he be? For Diego Costa it was the first time
playing alongside players of Andres Iniesta, Thiago Alcantara, Cesc Fabregas, David Silva, and Pedro’s caliber; players that enjoy making the passing game into an
elaborate painting. It was Andres who gave Costa’s first through pass with La
Roja.

Spain’s no. 19
brought to La Roja an option it has missed in recent times; that striker that
is ready inside the box to receive that cross in order to score. There was a
clear-cut target after the tiqui-taca scenario. Not only that, but when the
game appeared to be on Italy’s side, the long-ball pass could be used to surprise
the Italian center-backs. Costa sprints with an intrepid speed the minute he
spots a long-ball coming his way, and when it is time to play on who will win
it, he transforms into a Hummer and runs over the defender.

Ramon Besa, El
Pais football writer, said after the conclusion of the match that Diego Costa
did not fail to the occasion because “no se desenchufó”, in order words, he did
not switched off from the match, even if he was playing against one of the
strongest defenses in the world, the Italian. Post-game, Costa was happy for
the win, and for receiving Vicente Del Bosque’s trust in his first game
representing Spain.

2. For 90 minutes, Thiago Alcantara played
on Xavi’s position. In
the first half, he played with Sergio Busquets, and in the second with Xabi
Alonso. One of the aspects of his game that have led him to have a booming
start to his young career has been his daring ability to take the ball out of
difficult situations with a little bit of flare.

Against Italy,
he showed a lot of maturity with his passing decisions; there is a level of
prudence in his game that should elevate his playing style, especially
in the months ahead with Champions League, and a hypothetical
World Cup participation.

Thiago left FC
Barcelona because he wanted to enjoy the sport, and because he felt ready to
play the big games. The transition period for Spain is beginning, and Thiago
will become one of its leaders like Xavi was during this period of excellence
that has seen Spain win two EUROs and one World Cup.

3. There are those
players that are magnificent with their club and not so much with their
national team, but then there are those that are magnificent with their
national team and lack the sensationalism with their club. With Pedro, differentiating where he lands on the flow chart is complicated because he seems to have appeared in vital moments for both club and
national team. He is special.

His goal gave
the win to Spain. Pedro appeared on the left flank, on the right flank,
defending, sliding, pushing, on center-forward position, everywhere. He is not the
player that robs all the front pages of newspapers but is a vital player for Del Bosque's team, which hopes to make a deep run in Brazil 2014.

Nicolás Muñoz was the man of the match after scoring all four goals in Isidro Metapan's resounding, yet surprising victory, over the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The MLS club came into their fourth group stage match with three previous victories and with a clean sheet in each of those games. Accumulating nine points in their CONCACAF Champions League run up to this match, the Galaxy was already qualified to the CCL quarter-finals as they made the trip to El Salvador, encouraging Bruce Arena to field a "B" team in their final group encounter.

On the other hand, El Salvador's Isidro Metapan no longer had a chance to qualify to the next round but that didn't stop them from getting inspired to beat the giants of Major League Soccer. Since no energy could be harnessed from the nearly empty stadium, Muñoz was the man responsible of inserting that vital surge of inspiration into his club, scoring an amazing free-kick on the 29th minute to start the Salvadoran party.

Less than five minutes later Nicolas Muñoz completed an impressive hat-trick with two more amazing goals on Jaime Penedo's replacement keeper, Brian Rowe. Like the first goal where Rowe's mistake allowed the ball to ease on by into the net, the second and third goal were also due to Rowe's negligence, as he was much too static when he was called to action.

Muñoz completed his pokar in the first half with another beautiful goal, lobbing the ball over Rowe without even looking at the net. The more than impressive performance from the Panamanian shot the Galaxy down from first place to sixth of the qualified teams and against all odds, Los Angeles will face the Xolos of Tijuana in the quarter-finals of the CCL on March of 2014.